Crossbow killer ‘murdered neighbour in row over noise’
A FATHER was murdered and his pregnant girlfriend injured in an attack by a crossbow-wielding neighbour in a row over noise, locals said yesterday.
Shane Gilmer, 30, had returned home from a date with Laura Sugden, 27, when he was killed in a bloodied attack by an intruder. Ms Sugden and her unborn baby survived and were in a stable condition yesterday.
Detectives last night confirmed they had discovered the body of suspect Anthony Lawrence, 55, the couple’s nextdoor neighbour, who went missing after the killing on Friday night.
Lawrence’s body was found inside a vehicle at a “rural location in North Yorkshire” after a two-day manhunt, Humberside Police said.
According to locals in the village of Southburn, near Driffield, East Yorkshire, Mr Gilmer and Ms Sugden were attacked in a dispute about noise, having moved in next door to Lawrence in months. Neighbours said Lawrence had turned up at the couple’s house last month to complain about noise, and had been to their home on Friday night to complain again about loud music.
A man in his thirties, who lives nearby but did not want to be named, said: “He’d gone round a month before and threatened them to keep the noise down. Shane and Laura lived next door to him, but hadn’t been there long. He wasn’t happy about the noise.
“It sounds like a horror movie.” Det Chief Insp Stewart Miller, from Humberside Police, said last night: “We can confirm that, at around 6pm, officers discovered the body of a man believed to be 55-year-old Anthony Lawrence.
“Mr Lawrence was wanted in relation to the murder of Shane Gilmer and the attempted murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Laura Sugden, on Friday.”